CLAREMONT, Calif. – The No. 8 Swarthmore College men's tennis team earned another big win over a nationally-ranked program on Friday night, defeating No. 12 Washington University in St. Louis by a 5-2 score. It is the Garnet's second straight victory over a fellow nationally-ranked squad on their Spring Break trip.
Swarthmore won the doubles point then proceeded to win four of the six singles bouts.
Michael Melnikov went 2-0 to lead the Garnet.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Bears took the opening match at second doubles, knocking off the team of
Kai Chen and
Andres Fente, 6-3. However, Swarthmore bounced back with two consecutive wins to claim the doubles point.
Max Lindstrom and
Winston Zhang grabbed a 6-3 triumph at the third position then Melnikov and
Utham Koduri pulled out a 7-5 decision at the top flight to give the Garnet a 1-0 edge.
- Melnikov coasted to a 6-0, 6-1 success at the first spot to begin singles play and put Swarthmore up two.
Rishi Verma upped the Garnet advantage to three with a 6-4, 6-3 win at third singles.
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Lalith Suresh secured the match for Swarthmore with a 6-4, 6-1 victory at the fourth position. Suresh erased 2-0 and 3-1 deficits in winning the opening set. WashU got on the board and ruined the shutout bid with a 6-3, 7-6 triumph against
Aamish Pal at fifth singles.
- After dropping the first set,
Aadhi Raja rallied for a comeback win at sixth singles, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Bears took the final match of the evening at second singles, defeating
Max Lindstrom in a third-set super tiebreak, 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 1-0.
UP NEXT
The Garnet conclude their trip on Saturday with a showdown at No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.
